Omaha daily bee., 1887-01-27
BIG LABOR COMPLICATION.
The Longshoremen's Strike Assumes Unex-
peoted and Gigantic Proportions.
NO MORE COAL TO BE HANDLED.
The Supply to BE Cut or From All
the Ports OF New York Harbor-
Twenty Thousand Men
Affected.
A Serious Situation.

NEw YORK, Jan. All police reserves
In New 1Ork were called out to-day, owing
to the threatening state Of affairs caused by
the strike of the longshoremen. The long
shoremen are con sidering the question OF
having a general strike all along the docks
and piers of the two cities. They issued an
order yesterday to all coal shovelers to refuse
TO handle "scab" coal. The result is, no coal
is being landed in the city to-day. The stop
page effects all ste amship lines dependent
upon them for ordinary supplies of coal, The
longshoremen handle coal for steamship
lines the same as regular merchandise.
but will not handle coal for any steam shin
taking freight from the Old Dominion. The
steamer Gallia, of the Cunard line, and
Devonia of the Anchor line are being tied
up because they are receiving freight from
the Old Dominion. Police Superintendent
Murray considers the situation threatening.
AT l p. M, all the longshoremen working
by the hour employed by the National and
Cunard steamship companies went on a
strike. They struck because the companies
had employed Italians to work in a grain ele-
vator. The trouble on the Cunard dock was
that the superintendent had taken some of
the old time hands and given them steady
employment at the rate OF SIG per week.
The men who worked by the hour said that
the new weekly men would be eventually
COWDe3lpu 10 DarGeS, OF, tI ltHSt, tDdt
an attempt would be made to have them do
so:,.
The struggle of the striking longshoremen,
that has to a certain extent become merged
ferred to a field of wider proportions
to-day when it became known that
no coal of any sort should be handled in the
ports of New York by union men on the
ground that coal in the harbor now has been
put aboad barges by non-union men. Thus,
transferring of coal to transatlantic and
coastwise steamships cannot be undertaken
by any union man, and the supply OF coal 10
consumers in this city, Brooklyn and other
points around the harbor of New York can
not be replenshed by union men. The effect
OF the carrying out of the order of the
knights not to load coal became Immediately
apparent all along the river fronts All the
ocean and coastwise steamship lines, with
few exceptions, suddenly found themselves
. deserted by union i longshoremen whenever when. a,I
few lines which employ their
coal shoveers by the week. The order not
side of the port of New York. Even as far
as New Orleans it is said that union long
shOremen and others are under obligation not
to load vessels with coal. With the success
of the coal handlers the lOngshOremen, it Is
stated, could easily force transatlantic and
coastwise steamship lines to refuse to handle
Old Dominion freight. The question of
ordering general strike of l0ngshoremen Is
being considered so 1t is said, by the eXecu
tive board of the ocean association of the
s0ngShoremen's union, and it is thought to be
among the probabilities that not less than
twenty thousand men will be Idle tomorrow.
Poles from Wilkesbarre, Pa, while on their
way to Hoboken, N. j.. this morning to take
the Bremen steamers, were mistaken by the
coal strikers for men ne to take their places and
were assaulted Three of the party were SER
iously injured and one man so badly hurt
that he cannot recover.